Forbidden Zone
Forbidden Zone is an American absurdist musical fantasy comedy film produced and directed by independent filmmaker Richard Elfman, and co-written by Elfman and Matthew Bright. Shot in 1977 and 1978, the film premiered in 1980 and was distributed in 1982. Originally shot on black-and-white film, Forbidden Zone is based upon the stage performances of the Los Angeles theater troupe The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, of which Elfman, Bright and many of the cast and crew were a part, and revolves around an alternate universe accessed through a door in the house of the Hercules family.
Plot
The film begins on "Friday, April 17" at 4 p.m. in Venice, California. Huckleberry P. Jones (local pimp, narcotics peddler, and slumlord) enters a vacant house that he owns. While stashing heroin in the basement, he stumbles upon a mysterious door and enters it, falling into the Sixth Dimension, from which he promptly escapes. After retrieving the heroin, he sells the house to the Hercules family. On their way to school, Frenchy Hercules and her brother Flash have a conversation with Squeezit Henderson, who tells them that, while being violently beaten by his mother, he has a vision of his transgender sister René, who had fallen into the Sixth Dimension through the door in the Hercules' basement.
More details
author | Matthew Bright |
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director | Richard Elfman |
editor | Martin Nicholson |
genre | comedy fantasy science fiction |
keywords | capture come out decapitate devil fall heroin how to jew jewish man la brea tar pit la brea tar pits married mysterious door satan septic tank survive the king their way torture chamber write |
musicBy | Danny Elfman |
producer | Richard Elfman |
publisher | The Samuel Goldwyn Company |
theme | absurdist independent lgbt-related musical musical comedy parallel universes |